Photograph by Joe Bartram.
John Souter often sets his works on slickly finished, brightly colored shelves, emphasizing the condition of their display. This move, in combination with the high-key palette and highly worked surfaces of his ceramic sculptures, recalls the work of Objects: USA–era artists such as Ken Price and Ron Nagle, as does the sometimes rebuslike quality of his compositions. There is a key difference, though: a permissive quality that admits such oddments as pom-poms, rubber cord, and even a tiny wooden door set into the object as if admitting entry.
Every inch of a work by Price and Nagle seems subjected to a certain exactitude. Souter can bring that pressure to bear when he wants, but his works also possess a gently comic, even relaxed quality, positioning them within an “elastic space of no beginning and no ending, with something that isn’t quite right in between.”¹
¹ Joseph Bartram, “Interview with John Souter,” Title (Jan. 26, 2016).
Soft Rock (Blue) sculpture in ceramic, flocking, aluminum, solid surface, copper, nylon rat tail cord, and brass. Designed and made by John Souter, USA, 2020.
9" L x 20" W x 15" H
22.9cm L x 50.8cm W x 38.1cm H
SC808
Soft Rock (White) sculpture in ceramic, flocking, solid surface, aluminum, satin rat tail cord, and copper. Designed and made by John Souter, USA, 2020.
11" L x 11" W x 16" H
27.9cm x 27.9cm x 40.6cm
SC809
Soft Rock (Black) sculpture in ceramic, flocking, solid surface, aluminum, satin rat tail cord, and bronze. Designed and made by John Souter, USA, 2020.
10" L x 14" W x 11" H
25.4cm L x 35/6cm W x 27.9cm H
SC810